84 ORGANISATION 



topics ; in 1839 communications of this character 

 are wanting. The change clearly suggests a not 

 unnatural conflict of interests in the section as 

 originally constituted : it is a singular circumstance 

 that although the change is intimated in the Report 

 for 1838 as made by a resolution of the General 

 Committee, such resolution finds no place in the 

 manuscript minutes of that body. Geography does 

 not appear as a separate section (E) until 1851. 

 Murchison, by this time an ex-General Secretary and 

 past President of the Association, was also a powerful 

 supporter of the Royal Geographical Society, and he 

 was the first president of Section E. He assisted 

 to establish the section avowedly as a public 

 ' draw,' and was instrumental in including in its 

 earlier programmes such widely attractive names as 

 Livingstone, Speke, Baker, and Burton. It was 

 when he was staying near Bath for the meeting 

 there in 1864 that Speke met his death through an 

 accident with his gun while out shooting. 



The early history of the Medical Science Section 

 is chequered. It bore that title until 1844, when the 

 section was apparently found to be too narrow in 

 scope; moreover, the British Medical Association 

 was founded in the year after our own (1832), and 

 as it also is a travelling body, it is reasonable to 

 suppose that there may have been some unnecessary 

 duplication of interest as between our section and 

 that association. However that may be, the section 

 after 1844 became known as Physiology until 1847, 

 but it was then amalgamated with zoology and 

 botany (Section D), and so remained until 1865. 



In 1866 Section D was called Biology, and had 

 departments of physiology and anthropology. From 



